The Word of God should not
only be a check on our thoughts, but the source of them, which is a far deeper
thing. We see it in Christ, the only perfect One. He, only, could say, "By
the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer"
(Psalm 17:4). "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin
against Thee" (Psalm 119:11).

 

There is a preserving power in
the Word to keep the feet from sliding, which only those know who receive the
truth in the love of it. Merely having the Word hid in the memory and mind will
not do. There is no preserving power in that. There must be the action of the
truth on the heart and conscience, separating from all defilement, otherwise
its preserving power cannot be experienced.

 

Whenever there is a surrender
for Christ’s sake of what the flesh holds dear and cleaves to, there is
blessing; and the soul that dares to mortify the flesh and resist its claims is
ever rewarded by a clearer revelation of the Lord Himself. The displacing of
the lower, as it were, makes room for the development of the higher and purer
affection.

 

The reason that there is often
so much darkness and uncertainty as to God’s will among us,
is that the flesh is allowed to work, and the result is dimness of spiritual
vision. It costs us too much when we cannot say "No" to the clamorous
demands of our fleshly natures. Never, until we see it in the light of the
judgment-seat of Christ, shall we know how much we have suffered in soul, and
how much we have lost of eternal reward by our weakness and cowardice in
resisting the flesh and its claims. People complain of weak faith:they would
speak far more truly if they complained of their weak obedience. "Light is
sown for the righteous" (Psalm 97:11). "If any man will do His will,
he shall know of the doctrine" (John 7:17).

 

See in Christ—the perfectly
dependent, perfectly obedient One—our heavenly Pattern, the path of the just, which
shineth more and more unto the perfect day. How
little like Him we are—independent, disobedient, every one turning naturally to
his own way. The Lord help
us!                 

 

FRAGMENT:
"Behold, I come quickly:hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take
thy crown" (Rev, 3:11).

 

Then, hold fast! When it is no longer a question if it be the truth, but only of its
consequences. Hold fast though those who have held it with you, or
before you, give it up; though it separate you from all else whomsoever; though
it be worse dishonored by the evil of those who profess it; though it seem
utterly useless to hope of any good from it; in the face of the world, in the
face of the devil, in the face of the saints — "hold that fast which thou
hast, that no man take thy crown"!

 

"For they all
made us afraid . . . Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands" (Nehemiah
6:9).